Hunger, the ultimate enemy

South Sudan, 2015-2017

More than three years of conflict in South Sudan has left five million people–more than 40 per cent of the country’s population–in urgent need of food assistance and 100,000 are starving. Famine was declared in February 2017 for the first time in some parts of the country. Besides destruction and displacement, widespread diseases and economic decline, hunger also punishes the newest country in the world.
South Sudan gained the independence in July 2011, after decades of conflict with the government of Khartoum. Then, a civil war broke out in December 2013 between forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and those loyal to former Vice President Riek Machar. Since then, 3.5 million people have fled their homes and tens of thousands have been killed.
Nearly 200 humanitarian organizations (UN agencies, and international and national NGOs) provide the most basic services for more than one third of the population, not only food, but also shelter, protection, health, sanitation and education, among others assistance.